


Just like footloose.

by Alexander_Slamilton



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Avengers Engame Fix-it, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Relationships, Character Death Fix, Everybody Lives, Fix-It, Fluff, Happy, Multi, Trans Peter Parker, no one dies, not spoiler free, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 20:31:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18630742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_Slamilton/pseuds/Alexander_Slamilton
Summary: “Well, you see, I am Iron Man,” Tony smiles lightly, “and I really don’t feel like dying today.”SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU WANT TO LIVE A SPOILER FREE EXISTENCE PLEASE...I fixed some things that I felt needed fixing.





	1. dont fear the reaper

Tony’s got the stones, he can feel the power buzzing beneath the surface, he can see the others, and he knows what he’s got to do. He knows he has to get rid of the aliens, the bad guys that are currently ripping his team apart. Then it comes to him, Quill saying something stupid, which really isn’t out of character, he said a lot of crazy things on that planet. But, Tony remembers a specific thing, _the dance-off to save the universe_ , and what exactly had happened after it. Tony also thinks about Morgan, how he knows that if he did what he has to do alone, he would never get to see her again. And honestly, that just is not an option to him right now. His eyes flick from Thanos to find Quill in the crowd, know he only has a few seconds, so he needs to get these words out. He takes a deep breath, hoping his voice is steady, hoping his comms work, knowing the FRIDAY likely has patched him through.

“Quill,” He says, relieved when Quill looks directly at him, “remember the dance-off to save the universe?” Just seeing the look on Thanos’s face is worth it.

“What?” Thanos says, taking a step backwards.

Tony knows Quill understands, cause suddenly there’s a spark portal thing and Quill is there taking Tony’s hand.

“Well, you see, I am Iron Man,” Tony smiles lightly, “and I really don’t feel like dying today.”

Cap catches on pretty quick, placing a steady hand on Tony’s other side, and then, he doesn’t know how but Pepper’s at his back, looping her hands around his shoulders, and the kid is there. Rhodey is right by him, his hand on Tony’s other shoulder, Thor is there, gripping Quill’s wrist. The other’s that Tony doesn’t know are all magically transported to his side by the portals, he should really talk to Strange about that. Somehow the whole squad is holding hands and Thanos, and his minions have no idea what’s going on. Tony thinks that this might just work, or he hopes it does. He looks up at Quill, as the Wakandans and Sorcerers work together to form a sort of shield wall around them. Thanos might not have the stones but he sure does have a lot of freaking aliens at his command, Tony knows he has to do this.

“If this doesn’t work,” he whispers to Pepper, knowing she can hear him as she tightens her hold on him, “if this doesn’t work, I love you and Morgan 6000.” He says, his voice steady, he’s not shaking this time. This time he’s got back up. He snaps his fingers.

It is the worst. The worst feeling in the world. Worse than Obadiah taking out his arc reactor, worse than well. Everything. And that is saying something because Tony thinks, he’s been through a whole heap of shit. Then it sort of gets better. Like someone is taking a little of the pain away. It gets almost bearable. Almost. It is still the worst. But now Tony thinks that he can do this. He wills the stones to take the bad guys out of the equation. He makes it happen. Tony Stark makes it happen. With some help. Then it’s over. And Tony’s not really sure what’s going on, people are yelling, and there’s alien dust all over him, which is better than the dust of his friends.

He’s leaning up against a piece of the compound, it might have been the wall of a bedroom, he’s not really sure. Tony realises that it might have worked, but he’s also pretty sure his heart shouldn’t be beating like it is, and that it’s difficult to catch his breath. He also can’t quite feel his arm, but he supposes that he really should have expected this. Tony doesn’t feel pain, he doesn’t really feel anything at all. He opens his eyes.

“Mr Stark?” Peter says, he’s practically sitting on Tony’s legs, “we won, Mr Stark, Tony?”

“Kid,” Tony tried to say, he can’t quite remember how to speak, so it comes out as more of a grunt, but he has just enough gas in the tank to pat Peter on the shoulder. Noticing how there’s a few holes and burns in his suit. Then Peppers there, and Tony feels complete peace, the world is starting to black out a little now.

“Tony, it’s okay. We’ll be okay,” Pepper says, but Tony refuses to go. Not now. Not after everything. “You can rest.” Pepper is saying. But Tony shakes his head, just barely, he’s not going. He wants to see Morgan again.

“No,” Tony says, “I’m not going anywhere.” The words hurt to speak, everything is suddenly on fire, and Tony hurts. He smiles because the pain is a reminder that he’s alive.

“Tony,” Pepper whispers, but Tony looks past her to Strange, catching his eye.

“Fix this,” Tony says, gesturing at himself. Every breath feels like a thousand red hot needles in his lungs, and he knows that it would be much easier for him to just drift off like he was going to on the space ship, and looking at Pepper is a better view than he had even then. But he isn’t going to, he won’t let himself. He has just started to love life, love the things it can bring. Tony decides then and there that he hasn’t quite had enough of that to let it all go now. Not yet. Not until he’s older than his dad was, and ten times the father. Because there is no way that Tony Stark will let his daughter grow up without him there every damn step of the way.

“Stark-“ Strange begins but Tony fixes him with a look that stops him in his tracks, “okay.” Is all he says. “Okay. I can fix it.”

“Damn right,” Tony says before he passes out. The last thing he sees is a tiny, barely there smile on Pepper’s face.

***

Something is beeping. That is the first thing that Tony is aware of. The next is the bright white lights of a hospital room. It burns. The light burns his retinas, and he regrets opening his eyes. Then he notices someone is holding his hand. He thinks he knows who, though he doesn’t dare try to open his eyes again. So he tries to twitch a finger, let them know that he’s waking up.

“Tony? Oh my god, Tony.” Pepper says, “he’s waking up Shuri.”

“As I told you he would,” a young female voice replies. Seriously where is he? The girl sounds about twelve, not that he doesn’t trust whoever it is, they’ve got him this far.

“What do I do?” Pepper sounds frantic, Tony wants to tell her to calm down, but he’s starting to panic a little himself. He can’t move, and he hates it, the heart monitor begins to quicken a little.

“The both of you need to calm yourselves down before you undo all of Doctor Strange and my hard work,” says the young voice, “Mr Stark, my name is Shuri. You’re in a medical facility in Wakanda, and if you do not get yourself under control, I will have to poke you with a huge needle.”

“It’s been three months, Tony,” Pepper says to him quietly, running her hands through his hair. Tony wants to look at her, to make sure that this isn’t some kind of sick trick the universe is playing on him, which really wouldn’t be fair. “Everyone is okay, Morgan’s here, they have really good pre-schools here in Wakanda. Um… the rest of the team is okay, Rhodey is sorting things out back home. Peter wanted to skip school to be here, but Aunt May wouldn’t let him. I like her, Tony, we text. The infinity stones are back where they’re supposed to be. Steve took Captain Barnes with him, they came back safe. I can’t believe you invented time travel. Honestly, you’re amazing.”

There’s a pause, where the only things Tony can hear are rustling and a needle pressing in his arm; then, there’s a cold sensation creeping up the length of his arm and Tony can feel himself getting tired. Whatever it was must have been some kind of sedative, Tony hates it instantly. He’s fighting it, he’s not ready to sleep just yet. He needs to know more, he wants to see how everyone else is doing if any more threats need neutralising. The sedative is strong though, and he can feel himself slipping, but he claws back from the brink to listen to Pepper.

“Just for a little while, they need to make you just a tiny bit better,” Pepper is saying, “you’re not ready yet, Tony.” She’s stroking his hair again, running her fingers through it, as he slips off. “Rest for now, and then you can fight when you’re stronger. Morgan will be here the next time you wake, I promise.” She presses a kiss on to his forehead, cupping his jaw. It’s nice he can feel it, Tony doesn’t think he’s ever felt safer.

“It won’t be long now, Mr Stark,” Shuri pats him on his good shoulder.

***

“So, he’s going to be okay?” Steve is stepping off the plane, putting the shield on his back as he did so.

“Should be, just,” Bruce nods, “Clint’s on his way, we just got a message from him. Apparently, we’re renovating Stark Tower for HQ, according to Fury anyway. T’Challa was fine with us hanging here though while Tony… recovers.”

“I mean,” Steve pauses, as if he has to stop walking to think clearly, his brain is whirring and it's running on zero energy. “We helped though, I definitely felt… something and we were all burned by the stones.”

“We helped,” Bruce nods, “but he still took most of the force, if we weren’t there, Steve, he would have died. There’s no way he’d have been able to take it.”

“God,” Steve croaks, watching as Bucky and Sam step off the jet, they’re laughing. Bucky’s punching Sam on the shoulder, “we’d never get by without him.”

Bruce watches him, carefully, appraising him. Before he smiles and nods, patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t you forget that.” He says before he walks off, getting into an elevator Steve assumes leads to Tony.

“Oh, hi, Captain America,” Scott Lang pokes his head out from a stairwell.

“Call me Steve, Scott,” Steve sighs, “where’s the rest of the team?”

“I don’t even know,” Scott shrugs, “I think they’re in one of the gyms or something? Thor mentioned punching something, and the space guys seemed to agree that that was a good plan, um the magic people are talking to T’Challa, _did you know he’s a king?_ And the others are all waiting for Mr Stark to wake up. Apart from the spider kid, he had to go to school.”

“Did they mention when he was waking up?” Steve asks.

“No,” Scott shakes his head. “You’ll be wanting to talk to Shuri if you want to know that.”

“Right,” Steve smiles, “thanks, Scott.”

“Oh hey, looks it’s the ant dude,” Sam shouts as he walks into the building, “what’s up!”

“Oh you know, just recovering from the end of the world,” Scott laughs, “nice to see you all made it back from whenever you went… _wow, that’s weird to say_ …”

“It’s good to be back,” Bucky says, “I don’t much like the past. We had’ a near drag Stevie out though, for one second he seemed like he wanted to stay.”

“Yeah,” Steve says, clapping Bucky on the shoulder, “glad I had you guys with me. There was no way I could have sat through all the awful stuff that happened and not done anything about it.”

“Well, I gotta go FaceTime Cassie, or she’ll give me hell again,” Scott waves them off as he heads back into the stairwell.

“I have to talk to Shuri,” Steve heads for the elevator, “you know where her lab is, Buck?”

“Course,” Bucky follows, “you coming bird brain?”

“Fine,” Sam bumps their shoulders together, grinning all the while.

***

Shuri is not what he expected a Princess to be like, Steve found that out when they were in Wakanda before the first battle with Thanos, but still, seeing her again puts a smile on his face. She’s peering over Tony as he sleeps on, occasionally she taps at a screen, but mostly she looks at this little handheld device. Steve checks Tony’s vitals, they look a hell of a lot better than they did when he first got to Wakanda, it’s pretty much a miracle even with all their help. He scratches at the burn on his arm, that’s really more of a scar now. Steve’s surprised that Pepper isn’t there, she’s been around all the times Steve’s seen Tony since he was brought into the lab. Bucky and Sam leave muttering about finding a firing range, or something, he watches them go. Knowing that at some point he’s going to have to work out a way of getting Bucky and Tony to work out the shit that Bucky caused.

“Shuri,” he coughs, standing at the door of the lab, shifting from foot to foot.

“You’re back,” Shuri doesn’t even turn around. Instead, she just taps at the screen again.

“I needed to brief the team before they all disappear,” Steve waves, his hand awkwardly in the air, “I need to know when he’s going to wake up.”

“It’s not that easy,” Shuri shakes her head, “even for someone as good as me, it just isn’t that simple. It’s not like he was burned cooking a stew, his brain was fried with gamma radiation, that doesn’t just heal.” She sighs and walks over to him, “his brain function is nearing normal, and the burns on his body are healing well, it won’t take too much longer.”

“Can you give me an estimate?” Steve asks, he needs to know.

“No,” Shuri shakes her head again, but this time it’s accompanied with a smile, “I can’t, the brain is the most complex organ of the human body, it is the powerhouse for everything that was and is Tony Stark-“

“You could say that the brain is the mitochondria of the body,” Peter Parker walks in from the bathroom, wiping his hands on a towel. Steve has no idea what he’s talking about but, Shuri laughs so he feels he has to as well. “Hi, Mr Rogers.”

“Actually,” Shuri laughs, “that’s not a bad way of putting it. I am doing everything I can, I promise, Mr Stark has more than one brilliant scientist looking out for him.”

“Thank you,” Steve looks at her, he really is thankful, “you and your people have done so much.”

“I would say that it was nothing, Mister America, but I would be lying,” Shuri fixes him with a hard look, again accompanied with a smile, which really doesn’t make Steve feel any better. “I thought after the last time that I wouldn’t have to fix another broken white boy, and yet, here we are. I suppose it’s an honour, I read a lot of Mr Stark’s work when I was younger, it was a good starting point.” She walks off, bringing a floating screen alongside her, Steve can’t make out what it says.

“Honestly,” Peter looks at him, “she could kill me, and I would thank her.”

“Oh,” Steve considers this for a moment, it sounds like some of the jokes people used to make when he was young, “yeah, I get that.”

“It’s a mood,” Peter nods his head.

“Bit soon though,” Steve smiles a bit. “I’m glad he’s okay.”

“So am I,” Peter sits by Tony’s side, “Pepper will be coming back soon, she had to go to New York to check on Stark Tower.”

“Yeah, we’re using it as HQ,” Steve sits by him, he feels a weird sense camaraderie with this kid from Queens. “At least, we might be.”

“It’d be nice,” Peter nods, “I’d like to be closer to the team.”

“Hey, kid,” Steve looks at Peter, “you did well out there.”

“Yeah,” Peter smiles, “thanks, Cap,” Steve notes the use of Tony’s nickname. “Shuri is amazing, I’ve learned so much from her, more than I ever would have at school. Honestly, you know she can do brain surgery without opening anything up! How awesome is that, and she has this fancy Geiger counter which she’s been using on Mr Stark, I asked aunt May if I could stay here longer than just spring break but she no. I was wondering if you could write a note to get me off school so I could be here when Mr Stark wakes up? I’m sure they’d listen to you, you’re Captain America.”

“I,” Steve tries to process everything the kid has said, but he’s not sure his brain works quite that fast. “not if your aunt said no. She is not someone I want to piss off.”

“Aw, come on, Mr Rogers. Oh wait, is that Captain Rogers, I could call you Captain Rogers or something I don’t know-“

“Just call me Steve,” Steve waves him off, “don’t worry about it kid.”

“Sure, Mr Ro- Cap- Steve,” Peter nods rapidly.

“I’m gonna go for a run, clear my head,” Steve gets up, after a minute or two of sitting there watching Tony’s heartbeat on the little screen. He doesn’t want to be there, he and Tony still aren’t exactly friends. However much he wants everything to be okay between them.

***

“Tony,” Pepper says, stepping towards his beside, taking his hand. “Come on, Tony, it’s time to wake up.”

“Daddy,” Morgan walks up to the bed, she’s a little wobbly, which is fair enough. Pepper’s not sure how this is supposed to work. Shuri ensured her that all the sedative was out of Tony’s system, that she was stimulating is brain with electromagnetic waves or something.

“Tony,” Pepper whispers, “we need you.” She watches as Tony’s eyes flicker, the lights have been turned down to the minimum setting. She can’t wait to see those eyes again, she has been looking forward to this for six months.

“Pep,” it’s croaked out, and barely there but Tony spoke to her.

“Hi,” she says, stroking a finger down Tony’s cheek, as his eyes open just a little bit. Just enough for her to see their colour. “Someone’s here to say hello.” She takes Morgan’s hand and leads her to her father.

“Daddy!” Morgan nearly yells before she remembers what Pepper told her. “I missed you.” She presses her cheek to Tony’s chest, as his hands fly to her hair.

“Mor-g’n,” Tony tries, his voice coming through a little clearer, “hi kiddo.” He runs his fingers through her hair.

“Mr Stark,” Shuri comes in, she’s smiling, “I need to run some tests, they won’t hurt. Don’t worry, I just need to see how your brain is functioning.”

Tony feels as though he’s been dragged through hell and then back again, over broken shards of razor-sharp glass. Which is really not fair because he saved the world. No, he saved the whole damn universe. He should feel fantastic, not like he’s had all his limbs pulled off one by one. It’s nice though when he sees Morgan’s face, strokes her hair through his fingers. Tony buries his face into her hair, pressing a kiss into the crown of her head. Then she’s gone, and the girl he remembers from something like a dream is back, she’s talking about tests, but all Tony wants to do is hug his daughter.

“It’ll be quick, Tony,” Pepper is saying, taking Morgan out of his arms, they step away out of his field of vision. Which really shouldn’t be allowed.

The tests don’t take long. They’re fine. He hurts, but it's not too bad, then Shuri pumps some painkillers into his veins, and the hurt is taken away. They don’t leave him foggy either, which is nice. His brain is whirring even though his body doesn’t really seem to be working so well. It feels like he’s been sucker punched by a super soldier bigger than Rogers and he’s really not enjoying it so much. Even with the painkillers, it’s terrible, he’s not in pain so much, he’s mostly just drained to all hell. Like a battery without any more juice left in it. He also can’t feel his arm, which isn’t great.

“Sit me up,” he says, looking at Shuri, “please.”

“I’m not sure…” she hesitates, scratching her head. “Let me check your spin and neck first, okay, I don’t want to have to keep fixing you.”

“What,” he points to the device in Shuri’s hand, “is that?”

“The bed is measuring the electronic signals your brain is sending through your spinal cord, we were worried that some of your thoracic vertebrae had been damaged and the vertebral foremen had been distorted which may lead to them squashing your spinal cord and then paralysis. We were also worried that your brain had been damaged by the radiation leading to possible mutations. You’re not out of danger yet, Mr Stark, but I’m fairly confident you’ll heal almost as good as new,” Shuri pats him lightly on the shoulder he can feel. The bed doesn’t even whirr as it sits him up, conforming to the shape of his body immediately. While Tony does his best to ignore all the bad stuff Shuri tells him could have happened.

“Well I feel fine,” he shrugs.

“I feel fine,” She mimics in a weird voice that Tony doesn’t understand at all. “That is because you are higher than the sun at the moment, Mr Stark,” Shuri laughs. “I’ll let you have time with your family, but I won’t be far.”

The drugs kick in a little more, giving him that weird feeling of existing but slightly to the left, as though he wasn’t entirely on the same plane as everyone else. Peter is at the door, hovering like he’s not sure he should be allowed in. Which is crazy because the kid is the reason Tony even tried to invent time travel, which Tony supposes he should make clearer. So he waves Peter into the room, moving his fingers a bit. Peter comes into the room and is immediately trapped by Morgan wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Morgan-“ Pepper starts, but Peter picks her up and puts her on his shoulders.

“It’s okay,” he smiles, laughing as Morgan tugs on his hair. “I got her. It’s good to see you To-Mr Stark.”

“You can call me Tony, Pete,” Tony smiles, his face aching a little bit with all the use its getting, but he’s not sure he cares.

“Shouldn’t you be at school?” Pepper looks at Peter, “do I need to text May?”

“No no no,” Peter shakes his head, “I finished my exams and stuff, so I asked if I could transfer here for the last few weeks. May said it was okay, she said that she’d send you an email and stuff… uh… you know… to let you know that I’d be around. I got in this morning, and I was going to head down here, but then I saw Mr- Captain- Rog- Steve, and well, I got distracted so then I tried to come here, but there was a cat stuck in a tree, so I had to climb it and get him down. And then well... uh… here I am?”

“It’s good to see you, Peter,” Tony tugs him closer, Morgan clambers off him and runs to sit on the end of Tony’s bed. “C’mere kiddo.”

“Oh okay,” Peter says, relaxing into the hug, “this is nice. I’m really glad you’re okay, Mr- Tony.”

“So am I, Pete,” Tony looks at Pepper, “I’m really glad I’m okay too.”


	2. brighter than the sun

  
“So all we have is a hollowed out tower, a guy with one eye, and a guy who’s supposed to be dead. And we’re supposed to use this to rebuild the Avengers? Just with this?” Carol Danvers raises her eyebrow as she leans against the ruined desk in the foyer of Stark Tower.

“Yeah-“ Agent Coulson starts.

“There’s one important factor you’ve missed,” a voice echoes from the doorway, “me.” Tony Stark is standing there. Wobbly, and with a cane in his hand, but he’s standing there. He looks proud, and not like he took the brunt of the infinity gauntlet.

“Stark,” Fury rounds on him, “you need to take a break.”

“This is my tower,” Tony fixes him with a look that brokers no argument, “my tower, my rules.” He walks toward them. “Danvers.”

“Stark,” Carol smiles, “it’s good to see you on your feet.”

“Yeah,” Tony hefts the cane a little bit, “I think I might build one of these with laser in it or something, that’d make it more interesting, FRIDAY, put that on the list.”

“On it boss,” the AI’s voice comes out of Tony’s pocket.

“We were wondering when you’d wake up,” Coulson steps out of the shadows he had cloaked himself in.

“You asshole,” Tony comes up close to him, “we thought you were dead.”

“I was,” Coulson smiles, shrugging his shoulders a little, “for seven minutes.”

“Doesn’t count,” Tony grins, “I made it to nine.”

“Besides,” Coulson levels his eyes to Tony’s, “you knew.”

“That’s my job,” Tony observes the agent, “I know things.”

“You’re quoting from Game of Thrones, really?” Coulson can’t help a laugh.

“It’s good to see you, Agent,” Tony shakes his head, “even after the end of the world we can always count on the dead to survive.” He pauses, “hey that was good, FRIDAY, write that down.”

“You got it, boss,” FRIDAY sounds like she could be smiling.

“You can have it,” Tony turns to Fury and Carol, “the tower, have it. I’ll draw up some… designs… and you can see which ones work.”

“Thank you,” Fury turns to Tony, his eye is fixed on Tony’s face, his whole body is tense; Tony realises that Fury is trying to predict his next move. Tony is determined not to give him the satisfaction.

“Yeah, you owe me,” Tony rounds on him, angrily. “I was ready to give up everything for you and this team. I’ve been lied to, abandoned, and when I got everything I ever wanted, they show up at my door and ask me to just give it up. And you know what, I did. I gave everything I fought for up for this. You owe me. Not a team player, my ass. So I am going to draw your designs for my tower, and then I am going to retire with my kid and my wife.” He turns to Carol, “here.” Tony hands her the space friendly cell phone. “It has the receiver built in, which means internet and everything wherever you are. It’s solar powered as well so the battery won’t run out. Quicker and easier than the old system.”

“Thank you, Stark,” Carol takes the phone and turns it over in her hands.

“Not a problem, you want something built, come to me.” He sighs, running his hand through his hair, “But I am done fighting,” Tony looks back at Fury. “You hear me? I am done. Finished. No more. Not today. Goodbye.” He walks to the elevator, leaning heavily on the cane, “FRIDAY, please tell me the elevators are still functional.”

“The infinity protocol held up, Boss, everything is still in safe working order,” FRIDAY replies.

“One thing going right today,” he turns to the others who are still standing in the lobby, “well? Are you coming or not?”

“I didn’t realise we were invited,” Fury looks at him.

“Don’t give me time to change my mind,” Tony turns back to the elevator, pressing the button five times in a specific rhythm that gets the thing to move faster.

***

“Well you see, they thought the original trilogy did so well, so they made these,” Peter waves his hand. “I mean they’re pretty old now too, but I like ‘em.”

“They made Obi-Wan hot,” Quill whistles, watching Star Wars, episode two.

“Um, yeah,” Peter nods, “I mean most people focus on the ‘I hate sand line’ but same hat.”

“Yeah,” Quill snorts, “not as good as Footloose, but I guess it’ll do. And what’s this again?”

“It’s a Stark Pod,” Peter flicks through the music player, “I downloaded Spotify and made you a playlist of all the important stuff you missed.”

“He did the same for me already,” Bucky comes into the room, hands in the pockets of his jacks, but he plucks out the Stark Pod and waves it around, “I like this one.” Thrift shop by Macklemore plays on the loudspeakers. Bucky’s grinning, enjoying torturing Quill for a minute.

“Please make it stop,” Quill covers his ears. “This music is awful… how did Earth lose all sense of direction.”

“I mean,” Peter laughs, “this is pretty good, it’s from Shrek which is, of course, one of the best movies ever made.”

All Star by Smash Mouth turns out to be a universal hit, which Peter is not surprised at, they’ve been cooped up in Wakanda for a month now waiting for a briefing. It’s taken Mr Stark a long time to draw up the plans for the tower and Peter’s a little worried. But he’s enjoying show Quill all the earth stuff he’s missed in the last however many years, Peter’s sure he’s seen a Buzzfeed unsolved episode about the guy.

“Oh this, I like this,” Quill he grins, which is a little worrying. “This makes me want to kick down doors or somethin’. This is from a good movie you say?”

“It’s a cool place, and they say it gets colder-“ Shuri bursts through the doors yelling along with the lyrics.

“Ah yes, this song,” Thor is wandering through the room nodding along with the music, Peter notes that the dark circles under his eyes are gone and maybe there’s a hint happiness on his face where there wasn’t before. “I was informed by a child on the internet that I had not lived until I’d heard this and I must say, I agree, even though I have lived many thousands of years.”

“Shrek is universal,” Peter smiles.

“Shrek is-“ Shuri looks him dead in the eye like she no longer fears whatever fate has in store for her. Peter feels fear.

“Please don’t,” he whispers, hoping that she won’t finish the sentence.

“Fine, but stop hanging out with the old folks and come to the lab, I want to make something blow up.” Shuri tugs him along.

“Sometimes,” Bucky sighs, and sits on the sofa next to Quill, “It’s like they’re speaking a different language.”

“I believe the response to that is, ‘mood’” Thor sighs too and continue on his way out of the room, humming a tune that sounds a little like all-star but is also wrong.

“Most of the time,” T’Challa appears from somewhere down the hallway to the left of the large common space they’ve been given, “I have no idea what my little sister is saying I just passed them and one of them said “roadwork ahead” and the other replied “uh yeah I sure hope it does” and apparently that was a joke?”

***

“So,” Steve looks at the plans in front of him, “this is it?”

“Yeah, what did you want me to do? Build a transformer?” Tony raises an eyebrow.

“No, no,” Steve is proud that he understands the reference but he also doesn’t want to offend Tony, the designs are perfect. It’s just hard to equate the tower with HQ. Not after everything that’s happened. “Tony, it’s perfect.”

“I’m still mad at you,” Tony jabs him in the chest, but it’s light not designed to hurt. “but we work better when we’re not trying to tear each other apart.”

“Right,” Steve nods. “I should have told you about Bucky.” God, Steve regrets just about everything he’s done in this century. But that’s probably the biggest regret, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get over what he put Tony through. “And while I still don’t think you were right about the accords, I went about well… everything, the wrong way.”

“Yeah, genius, that’s why I’m still mad at you,” Tony looks at him, “but I guess maybe I could have been better at somethings too.”

Steve holds out his hand, giving Tony a chance to pull away, to ignore the gesture. But Tony takes his hand and claps Steve on the shoulder. It feels like the end. Like an end. But also very much like a beginning too. Maybe an even better start than 2012 had been.

“So you won’t be living there?” Steve points at the tower.

“No,” Tony smiles, it’s small and soft, and nothing like any smile Steve has seen Tony give before, “I am going to retire and become a house husband. A kept man. It’s going to be glorious. Pepper is going to keep running SI, and I am going to look after Morgan, maybe I’ll even teach her some stuff. We’re close enough to New York that I can come into the city whenever, and Pete’s already going to come visit. There’s another kid too, met him a few years ago, Harley, he doesn’t get on with his mom. So I offered him a room with us, he’s gonna come. It’s going to perfect.”

“Sounds it,” Steve laughs, there’s a warm feeling creeping through him at Tony’s evident happiness.

“You’re going to keep letting them work you to death, though,” Tony pauses, looking at Steve, it’s the same sharp-eyed gaze that had hit Steve in 2012. Appraising though not unkind. “Come round for dinner, then take some time off. Go see this century, maybe with your pal.” They walk through the lab Tony had been given when they moved operations to Wakanda temporarily. “It’s a big world out there, Cap.”

Steve pauses, “I could do that.”

“Cap,” Tony catches his elbow, “we can rest now. We can be done. Let the others take the wheel, ten years is a hell of a long time to be fighting.”

“I’m not sure how to,” Steve looks out of the window, at the bustling city, alive with colour and people. It’s a testament to how strong these people are, that they have the events of the past five years in their stride and that they have recovered so well. The city is bright and the people seem happy, looking at it makes Steve realise that everything has been worth it, for him anyway. “Almost my whole life, there’s always been a war or something to fight, the depression, the war, then aliens, then Ultron, then well…”

“Just let go,” Tony shrugs, “just let go. Take off and go somewhere without being on the run or fighting your way through the place.”

“I could do that,” Steve smiles.

***

The cabin looks exactly like it did when Tony left it to go back to New York. It’s small and rickety looking, but Tony knows that on the inside it’s a proper home, a place where everyone he loves can call home. And Tony has a lot of love to give. He always has, his dad thought that was a weakness, but Tony knows that it’s that love that made him risk his life over and over again. Without it, the universe would be gone ten times above. He walks up to the creaky wooden stairs, over the past few months he’s not had a chance to come back, it’s been meeting after meeting and physical therapy and drawing plans for the new HQ. But he’s done. Not for good. He’s still a consultant; that’s a job that will likely stick to him till he really does kick it. But he’s done fighting the battles. Done risking his life.

“Daddy!” Morgan runs out the house and into his arms. The metal one whirrs, a little, just a low noise, but Tony notices it. Barnes had said he would.

“Kiddo!” Tony picks her up and whirls her around, grateful to Shuri that he can still do it.

“Mom said you had a metal arm, so I got you this,” Morgan holds up an Iron Man magnet, “you can stick it on your arm, so everyone knows it’s yours.”

“Wow! That’s awesome, thank you!” Tony doesn’t bother to explain to Morgan that people will know the arm is his because it’s attached to him. The magnet is super cute and would totally freak people out. The arm is the same colour as Tony’s skin, expertly painted by an awesome machine (that Tony didn’t immediately deconstruct) in Shuri’s lab. It even feels like skin. So him going around with a magnet stuck to something that looks like it’s just skin is bound to freak some people out. He takes it and sticks it to the arm on the shoulder. “Amazing, now everyone will know that this is my arm.” He ruffles Morgan’s hair, kissing her on the head.

“Mom brought pizza from the city for lunch,” Morgan takes a curl of his hair in her hands.

“Did she?” Tony can’t remember the last time he had a slice of proper New York pizza. “I hope she got extra, we have some people coming round.”

“Peter!” Morgan almost screeches, she loves Peter almost as much as she loves her mom and dad, it warms Tony’s heart.

“Yeah, Pete’s coming, and your other brother,” Tony knows Pepper told Morgan about Harley, or he hopes she did.

“Harley,” Morgan nods, “Mommy told me.”

“Good,” Tony tugs her hair back, lightly, before curling the strand around his fingers. “And you know why he’s coming?”

“Yeah,” Morgan pouts, “he chose to live with us over his own mom.”

“Yep,” Tony nods, “and we’re happy to have him.”

“Do you think he’ll teach me science?” Morgan brightens. Peter has been teaching her easy science, well not easy, she’s Tony’s kid, after all, they had built a fully functional computer last time, and nearly destroyed the lab, but both her and Peter enjoy it.

“Probably, he’s just as good as Pete,” Tony walks into the house, sinking into the cool air-conditioning. “He’s at college.”

“Oh,” Morgan nods. “Why’s he living with us then?”

“Because he needs somewhere to live,” Tony sets his daughter down on the stairs that lead to the second floor. “And because we have the room, also we like him.”

“Where does he go to college?” Morgan asks like a five-year-old would need to know the answer to the question, but she’s asked him enough times about MIT for Tony to know that college is already something she’s thinking about.

“Columbia,” Tony feels a little betrayed, he had done when Harley’d emailed him, but Columbia is awesome. “Which we don’t like cause-“

“MIT is the best!” Morgan yells, jumping up and down a little where she sits.

“Exactly-“ Tony is about to say something else, but he’s cut off.

“MIT sucks,” Harley walks into the room, “Hey Tony! What’s up? I failed Spanish.”

“How on earth did you fail Spanish?” Tony goes into ‘Dad Mode’, the kid has to have an IQ of 150.

“Built this instead!” Harley takes out the little robot. It’s a knight on a horse, that waves its sword in the air, the horse moves as well when it’s set down on the table. “It’s for you, Morgan.”

“Wow,” Morgan’s eyes go wide as she walks up to the table and watches the little knight ride around it. “What’s his name?”

“I dunno,” Harley shrugs, “he’s yours, why don’t you give him a name, lil dude.”

“That’s great Harley, but you also need to pass Spanish?!” Tony takes Harley by the elbow, turning him around to face him, “no kid in my house is failing Spanish.”

“I-“ Harley’s face falls a little.

“We can work on your Spanish together,” Tony nods, walking over to where a ‘to do’ list is taped on the fridge. “The two of us combined will get you to pass that class.”  
“You speak Spanish?” Harley looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

“No, but I speak Italian, and I pick up things pretty quick… you know… genius,” Tony waves a hand in front of his face.

“I didn’t know you could read,” Harley looks at him with a blank face, for a good fifteen seconds before Tony realises he’s joking.

“What the hell, kid?” Tony splutters.

“Boys! And Morgan! Clean up and get your butts in here before this pizza goes all gross and soggy,” Pepper calls from the dining room. They didn’t often use it but today was their first day where the whole family would be there.

“Is May coming?” Tony asks, washing his hand, flicking Harley and Morgan with drops of water.

“She couldn’t make it, they’re still sorting the whole place out, from you know. But Happy said he’d pick Peter up.” Pepper poked her head out from the dining room, “hi, Harley.”

“Oh, hi!” Harley’s in the process of spraying Tony with soap bubbles, but Tony is pretty sure the kid doesn’t fear death, so he continues even with Pepper watching.

“It’s good to finally meet you in person,” Pepper just smiles at him, “did you manage to fit all your things on your bike?”

“Oh, no,” Harley shakes his head, “I borrowed a friend’s car to bring my stuff here, figured I’d leave the bike in the city, this weekend. Maybe I’ll ride it back next time.”

“Sure,” Pepper pats him on the shoulder.

“Are you keeping the pizza under the heat light?” Tony asks, kissing Pepper on the cheek (ignoring the sounds of disgust from Harley).

“Yes, Tones, really, you’re not the only genius in this house,” Pepper kisses him back, smiling fondly. “It’s good to finally have you home.”

“It’s good to be here.” Tony relaxes into her arms as they come round and circle his waist.

“Mister Stark?” Peter’s voice calls out from the porch.  
“Doors open Pete!” Tony replies, drying his hands on a rag. “Peter Parker, meet Harley Keener. Y’all are brothers now,” Tony laughs a little watching Peter’s eyes widen.

“Hi!” Harley slaps Peter on the back, “you’re adorable! You didn’t tell me he was going to be this adorable, Tony you asshole.”

“Mister Stark! I can’t breathe!” Peter is scrabbling at Harley’s back, but he’s laughing at the same time, which can’t be helping the whole breathing thing, but Tony can’t breathe for laughing either. He’s not even mad at Harley for swearing with his daughter in the room.

“Peter!!!” Morgan leaps from a chair on to Peter’s back, wrapping her little legs around his waist.

Pepper steps forward to help the boys, but Tony holds out a hand to stop her. He’s nearly bent double with laughter, and honestly, he doesn’t think he’s ever been happier. This is his family, it’s little, and a few of them probably are a bit more broken than average, but it’s his. And no one can take them away from him because Tony saved the universe time and time again. His heart is just so full of love he can barely breathe with it.

Tony doesn’t think he’s ever been this happy, it's a warm glow that wraps itself around his heart and doesn’t fade as they all move to sit around the table. Harley’s telling Peter about Columbia and how he met Tony, and Peter is telling Harry about space, though Tony notes the careful avoidance of what happened on Titan. They sit around his dining room table all five of them, the dining table that Tony made himself, carefully making sure it could fit a whole family around it. They’re laughing and talking, and Harley is carefully throwing bits of pepperoni at Morgan while Peter catches them before they hit her (Spidey reflexes). Pepper is laughing at the scene before her, every now and then stroking her daughter’s hair and telling her to eat her pizza without letting the cheese fall on the table top. Tony just sits back, and watches the scene before him, this is what peace means. This is true happiness.


	3. god only knows what i'd be without you

The first night after he gets back the nightmares start, they’re vicious, and he wakes up breathing hard, all dizzy and nauseous. But Pepper is there, with her arms around him and her words pulling him back from the brink of a panic attack. Tony relaxes as he swings himself out of bed, he doesn’t much feel like lying there waiting to go back to sleep. He got into the habit of taking a short walk in Wakanda. The city is so safe that walking around at night is entirely safe, even at three am. So he goes out to the porch and looks up at the stars, this is something he totally doesn’t miss about New York, he couldn’t see the stars. Tony snorts, who could have thought, Tony Stark the country boy. But space is no longer cold and unfeeling, a place of horror, instead he remembers his time with Nebula. They had fun. Well. As much fun as it’s possible to have when you think you’re dying. But here on his porch, he feels safe, and at home.

“That’s a pretty sick arm you got there,” says a voice from behind him.

“Oh, hi, kid,” Tony looks round to see Harley standing in the doorway.

“I gotta say,” Harley smiles pushing himself off the doorframe so that he can sit on the step next to Tony. “I didn’t even notice it at first, whoever made it was pretty good.”

“Yeah,” Tony nods, “she’s better than me.”

“I mean, so am I so I wouldn’t say that’s amazing,” Harley snorts, “I’m joking, I cover up my burning anxiety and repressed trauma with humour.” Harley sighs bumping his shoulder against Tony’s.

“Yeah, I know how you feel,” Tony smiles.

“Well, I would have made cocoa, but I have literally no idea where you keep the cocoa or the mugs… so I didn’t,” Harley says, looking up at the sky.

“Uh, so you guys couldn’t sleep either, huh?” Peter comes out the door and sits on a step higher than the one they’re on.

“Welcome to the club, Pete,” Harley pats him on the knee.

“I’m older than you,” Peter grumbles, “I was born two years earlier than you.”

“Yeah, but, I’m the older brother now so deal,” Harley sticks his tongue out at Peter.

“Wow, so mature,” Peter says in a sing-song voice.

“Wow, so mature,” Harley mimics.

“Kids,” Tony sighs. Placing his hands in his hair, Tony has never felt so old. “Please stop. It’s four am, and your sister is sleeping upstairs.”

“Sorry, dad,” Harley stuck his tongue out at Tony.

“Okay, that’s enough up to bed,” Tony ushers them off the step.

“I just got here!” Peter cries, pouting. “Can’t I go work in the lab for a bit?”

“Fine, just don’t let anything blow up, Jesus, and be in bed by five, I’m still waking you up by ten am,” Tony pauses on the stairs that lead to the bedrooms.

“I’ll work with him, adult supervision, you know?” Harley claps Peter on the shoulder, he’s doing his best whisper, which is really just a slightly lower shout.

“If you don’t get to class tomorrow, Harley Keener, I will personally ask your professors to assign extra homework,” Tony shoves them towards the lab. “I already programmed you in, Harley, and Pete FRIDAY will remember you.”

He walks up the stairs as the boys stumble off into the lab, he scrubs his hand over his face when he crawls back under the covers. Tony’s brain is whirring, spinning over the conversation he just had on the step outside.

“Pepper… Pep…” He slaps Pepper’s arm, “am I their dad?”

“What?” Pepper turns over to look at him.

“The boys? Am I their dad?” Tony isn’t sure how to feel, he’s pretty sure he’s hyperventilating.

“Tony-“ Pepper sighs.

“I am their dad,” Tony feels how right it is, he knows it. “Pep… we have three kids.”

“Yeah, Tony, I know,” Pepper rolls over after she pats him on the shoulder, “go back to sleep.”

“Pep… three kids…” Tony is staring at the ceiling, he feels just a little hysterical.

“Yes, Tony,” Pepper mumbles, “go to sleep.”

“Three kids,” Tony laughs.

***

Tony’s true to his word and a nine thirty am he bangs pots and pans together outside the doors to the boy’s rooms. Pepper’s downstairs eating the pancakes he made earlier, Morgan on her lap sipping on a juice box. He’s pretty sure he heard the doors close around five am. So he knows this wake up will be painful, but he also knows that Harley has a class at eleven and has to get all the way back to the city and that May expects Peter back by noon.

“Aw man,” Harley stumbles out his room rubbing his face, “Tony you’re a real asshole you know that right?”

“Takes one to know one, Kid,” Tony grins, still banging the pots together, “wakey wakey, rise and shine!”

“Mr Stark!” Peter almost crawls out his room, he’s wearing the hello kitty pyjamas that Tony bought him after the boat incident.

“You’re in my house, Pete, call me Tony,” Tony laughs, “morning kiddo.”

“So what, we’re ‘kid’ and ‘kiddo’ now?” Harley calls from the bathroom.

“Would you prefer ‘jerk one’ and ‘jerk two’?” He says as he walks down the stairs.

“Yes!” Harley shouts.

“What just happened?” Peter is standing in the hallway, yawning.

“May wants you back in the city by noon, Pete,” Tony tells him, “and Keener, I know you have a class at eleven. You can take Pete with you and drop him off at the subway. And Peter Parker, don’t you dare use the suit. That’s a piece of specialist equipment, not to be used as public transport.”

“Aww man, it takes ages to get from Manhattan to Queens,” Peter moans, chugging orange juice from the carton.

“Pete,” Tony looks at him.

“Yeah, yeah I know,” Peter sighs, and sits, down at the breakfast bar.

“Hey,” Harley says, “can I get a suit?”

“Do you have spider powers given to you when a radioactive spider bit you?” Tony looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t think so, not gonna happen.”

“So what? I’m just a taxi service now?” Harley glares at Tony but can’t quite keep the grin off his face.

“Yep! Would you like a roof light for the car?” Tony pops the ‘p’ with a smirk.

“Oh my god,” Harley shoves a pancake in his mouth whole and walks back upstairs to pack.

“Gimme a minute, Honey,” Tony says pressing a kiss on Pepper’s forehead, before he turns to follow Harley upstairs, “eat your breakfast, Peter.” He finds Harley sitting on the bed, the room is a guest room, and it sure looks like it. Impersonal and bare, with a random piece of modern art up on the wall. It’s painted a nice shade of off white, but it looks like it’s never been lived in. Which it hasn’t, they weren’t hosting many dinner parties while half their friends had been turned to dust.

“Hey, Harley,” Tony sits on the bed next to him, “I’m not good at this stuff, but you told me you and your mom didn’t get on, and I wanted to ask, what happened?”

“She’s dead,” Harley coughs, tears forming in his eyes, “my sister too. A car ran into them just after the snap, drove them off the road and into a ravine.”

“Oh,” Tony says.

“Yeah,” Harley almost laughs.

“Okay,” Tony pulls out his phone.

“What’re you doing?” Harley wipes his eyes.

“I’m setting you up with my therapist,” he types the message and receives an immediate reply. “Okay you’re going to 1443 York Avenue at three pm, Monday. Please don’t be late.” He watches Harley’s face, the kid doesn’t look impressed. “Look, this is just a taster session, it’s no biggie, you turn up and don’t like it then you don’t have to go again.”

“Uh,” Harley says, before he nods, “you know I’ve not told anyone what happened before, so.”

“Hey, Harley,” Tony says, after a small pause.

“Yeah?” Harley looks at him.

“This is your room, you know that?” Tony gestures to the space. “When you come back we can decorate it however you want, you know.”

“Really?” Harley’s eyes go wide in a way that Tony would never have expected from a kid who’s turning 21 in a few months.

“Yeah of course,” Tony waves his hand, “I’m your dad now after all. I let Morgan paint the entire solar system on her wall, you can do whatever you like.” Tony says it lightly, he’s going for jokingly but Harley’s smile is soft and warm anyway.

“Thanks, Tony,” he says.

“Not a problem, kid,” Tony slings an arm around Harley, pulling him in close. “I got you.”

***

Things are good for a month. Peter pops around at the weekends, most of the time with May (who Morgan immediately loves), Harley comes most days as far as his class schedule allows him too. It’s quicker on his bike, which he and Tony lovingly touched up and upgraded to include a HUD in his helmet and a couple of added safety features. But, things are good. They’re a family. Tony is retired, although he does send designs to SI on a consultant basis, and he is a little involved with the Avengers.

Then Steve shows up on his bike just when Tony’s pushing Morgan on the tyre swing out by the river. He’s got Barnes with him on his own bike, they’re both carrying some serious weight the bags on the back of their bikes. Barnes, for all that Tony doesn’t particularly trust the guy, sticks to the bikes as Steve spots Tony and comes towards him.

“Okay, Morgan, go back in the house please,” Tony gives her a light tap on the shoulder and watches her as she runs back to the house. “Rogers.” Tony nods, he brushes his hands on his jeans.

“Hi, Tony,” Steve smiles, “I emailed Pepper and asked her if it was okay to stop by here before we headed West.” Tony takes a second to really look at Steve. He’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt, his old leather jacket and motorbike gloves. Steve is also carrying himself differently, he seems less like he’s got a stick shoved up his ass and more like a normal human being.

“Okay,” Tony takes a breath, “fine. It’s good to see you.”

“And you,” Steve looks out at the water, Tony feels kind of smug, because he knows this land is gorgeous; it’s where he would have loved to have grown up as a child. He picked it because of that, and now Steve is standing on the bank of the river, with his hands in pockets. “This is lovely.”

“Yeah, it is,” Tony grins. “He can come over if he wants.” Tony gestures to Barnes, who’s still lurking by the bikes, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly. “Are you staying for lunch? You can if you want. Harley’s coming back for lunch, he had a Saturday morning lab but that finished about an hour ago, I think he’s picking up Peter as well.”

“Oh right,” Steve looks back at Bucky, he gestures for the man to come over, “you know, lunch sounds good if you’re sure.”

“Sure,” Tony nods, “I wasn’t just offering to be polite.” His phone vibrates in his pocket, (Harley had shouted at him for having it on loud), “oh look! The boys are about half an hour away.” He smiles, fully aware at how much like a dad he sounds, “Hi, Barnes.”

“Stark,” Bucky nods, still looking like a deer in the headlights, “nice arm. How’s it working for you?”

“Better now that I can do this,” Tony flexes his fist a certain way, and the arm changes colour to red and gold and a repulser comes out of the palm. “I couldn’t resist talking it through with Shuri, you see, why would I bother to wear a metal covering over my metal arm? Didn’t make sense. Now it matches the suit!”

“Wonder if I could get that upgrade,” Bucky scratches his chin, “nice how it’s skin colour as well.”

“I didn’t want to freak Morgan out,” Tony flicks his eyes from side to side, not really enjoying being vulnerable in front of these two men, but the words had just come out on their own.

“Oh,” Bucky nods, “no, yeah, I understand. I used’t get all worried when I would walk around, you know if my arm would scare the kids. But, uh, they love it,” Bucky smiles, and now Tony can see the guy who he really is, not the same person that killed his parents. Still, though. “Honestly it scares parents and adults more.”

“Huh,” Tony raises an eyebrow, relaxing a little, Bucky’s grown his hair out even further (though now it looks like he’s taking care of it). He’s wearing black jeans and a black bomber jacket, it looks like those guys from that show Peter and Harley watch have gotten to him. “Kids are awesome though, so.”

“They are,” Steve nods, “you’ve got a pretty good thing going on here, Tony. I can see why you don’t want to work anymore.”

“Don’t think I could work anymore, Steve,” Tony’s eyes flick up to meet Steve’s, “I’ve not been the same since… well… since Thanos,” Tony chokes through the word, “my back and knee, yeah… not what I used to be.”

“I’m grateful that you’re still here at all,” Steve mumbles, they’re working through the bullshit, in their own way. Like adults, Tony realises, and it feels good. To move on, “we need you, Tony, and I’ve not said it to you enough, but thank you.”

“Damn right,” Tony smiles, a smile which grows when he hears the rumble of a bike, “hey look! It’s Harley on his Harley with Peter.”

“Oh,” Steve smiles as he watches the bike pull up the drive, “I’m more of a fan of Triumphs but Harleys just have this sound to them, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” Tony walks round to the front of the house, “we worked on it together a couple of weekends ago. Added some features, changed bits and pieces. Could never resist the chance to make things better.”

“She’s a gorgeous bike,” Steve watches as the bike rolls up the drive, Harley’s slowed her down, the showoff. There’s a saddle bag on the back like Steve’s and Peter’s wearing a backpack with his spider-man themed helmet.

“Isn’t she just?” Tony’s heart warms, now they’re on the subject of his kids. The bike is gorgeous, and what’s more, she’s mostly the product of Harley’s work, that kid has some serious talent, like all of Tony’s kids. Harley though has more experience, and it was a joy to sit back and be the one passing the master hammers and wrenches. They’d worked together like a dream, designing things and building the bike up from the wreck she was. Now she’s even more impressive than she had been, and Tony had got to spend more time with his kid.

“Hi dad,” Harley hops off the bike pulling Tony into a hug, Harley notices the other two, he grins and turns to Barnes, “oh fuck, oh shit, you’re Bucky Barnes.”

“Uh, guilty?” Bucky shrugs, his eyes widening.

“Dude,” Harley whistled through his teeth, “I grew up reading the Captain America comics, you were like my hero.”

“What?” Bucky choked.

“Yeah, man,” Harley laughed, “C’ mon, you must have known about the comics.”

“Actually,” Steve coughed, “he uh, he hasn’t seen them yet.”

“Oh my god.” Harley gasps, “I got them all upstairs in my room, you wanna see ‘em?”

“Um?” Bucky looks a little like he’s panicking, but Tony gives him a hard stare and jerks his head in the direction of the house. “Yes?”  
Peter’s getting off the bike, taking the saddlebags off the back, and sending his suit back into the wristbands Tony made for him. He walks up to Tony, giving him a hug, just like Harley.

“Aunt May says ‘hi’, also she says that she’s coming next weekend,” Peter smiles, he’s a junior now, and it looks like the stress is finally starting to get to him. “You know, she’s looking forward to the weekend off. Also, did you still want me to bring Ned and MJ?”

“You can bring whoever you want here, Pete,” Tony ruffles his hair, “this is your house much as it’s mine.”

“Alright thanks,” Peter finally looks at Steve. He’s been keeping his gaze on his shoes as much as he can to give them a little privacy. “Hi, Steve.”

“Peter,” Steve smiles, “it’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, and you,” Peter pauses, “do you wanna come and see the bike Tony, and I’ve been fixing?”

“Oh,” Steve looks at Tony, who nods, “sure! That’d be great.”

“Tony and Harley wanted to get me a Harley, but I said I wanted a Triumph cause you know, they’re so much cooler. And they almost refused, but then I just did this,” he shows Steve his puppy eyes, Tony inwardly groans because they’re his ultimate weakness, “so he got this old wreck of a bike and said that if I wanted a Triumph, I had to fix it myself. So, he’s been watching me fix it ever since I want it done by my birthday but.”

Lunch goes well. They manage to sit through it like adults, and Tony actually finds himself having a good time. Which is suspicious, but it’s almost like 2012 again. And while he doesn’t think he can ever forget or forgive Barnes for killing his parents, he is starting to understand the effect Hydra had had on him. They eat, Tony makes jokes, everyone laughs; Peter and Harley squabble, and Steve and Barnes are the perfect guests. All in all, for three people who once tried to hurt each other, lunch goes really well.

***

“Pete,” Tony finds Peter sitting on the tyre swing, absently swinging himself backwards and forwards over the river. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Peter sighs, looking at the sun setting behind the trees.

“That says a lot, kiddo,” Tony sits down with his back against the tree, watching Peter. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine, but I can promise you it does help. Maybe not to me, but to a therapist or something.”

“I… I used to love space,” Peter smiles a little sadly, “I used to want to go out there, but now when I look up at the stars all I see is what happened. And I guess…” He takes a deep breath, “I guess I’m okay, but every now and then I freak out even at the stupidest thing, like a car honked at me and I had a panic attack and what the hell is that?” He kicks against the ground with his scuffed converse, Tony feels a pang of sympathy ricochet through his chest.

“You know,” Tony pats Peter’s shoe, which is the only part of him that he can properly reach, “I am probably the only person on Earth who actually understands that. Thing is, you can love space again, in time. What happened wasn’t because of space, it was because of ‘Big, Ugly, and Purple’, and maybe you need to give yourself some time to try and get that love of space back, but one day you’ll look up at the stars and feel the way you used to.”

“I hope so,” Peter sighs, “I hope one day I can go back up there and properly appreciate what I see, you know?”

“Yeah,” Tony nods, smiling softly, watching Peter he felt so proud, “one day, we can go up together, and we’ll stand and look out at the void, and we’ll feel fine. We’ll be able to look out at the stars, and the planets and all we will feel is happiness. And we’ll do it together.”

“I’d like that, I think,” Peter grins at Tony, properly.

They sit there until Tony’s back goes stiff from leaning up against the bark, and the night gets a little chilly. A breeze whirls its way across the water, ruffling Peter’s hair. Tony watches as the stars come out, and he notes how Peter tips his head up to look at them. Tony’s proud of his kids, more proud of them than anything he’s ever done. He sees Peter’s gentle, determined smile, that moves across his face slowly and then encompasses him all at once.

“Daddy!” Morgan runs out of the house, her bare feet slapping against the path. “You have to come and read me a story, it’s your turn.”

“Sure, baby,” Tony stands, grimacing as his back twinges, and his knee protests a little. “Pete, make sure you either get a coat or come in soon, ‘kay,” He says as he picks Morgan up, ruffling Peter’s hair as he passes by.

“Yeah, dad,” Peter smiles, his gaze still fixed on the stars.

***

He checks in on Harley’s room, he’s in here adding another thing to his walls and tangled hunk of metal that probably has a meaning to him. Tony smiles, looking at the posters of bikes and bits of tech that litter Harley’s walls. Harley looks up at Tony and grins, wiping some grease from his forehead.

“What’s up?” Harleys asks, spinning around in his chair.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Tony walked into the room, taking the invitation.

“Oh, okay, I can stop nailing things to the ceiling in the lab, I just wanted to see how good your nail gun was…” Harley grins, but there’s a tension in his shoulders.

“I mean, you can stop doing that but, I don’t actually care, the nail gun is excellent.” Tony sits down on Harley’s bed. He wrings his hands together a little nervously. “Not what I wanted to ask. I, uh, I wanted to know if you wanted…” He pauses, taking a breath, “Pepper and I were talking, and we wanted to know if you wanted us to adopt you. I mean… I know you’re nearly 21 but if we adopt you then well… it would be nice… no pressure, I mean, it’s only if you want-“

“Yes,” Harley says. “Yes.” His eyes widen, and he looks more than a little shocked, but then his face splits in a huge smile.

“Yes?” Tony laughs, he stands and pulls Harley into a bone-crushing hug.

“Yes!” Harley is laughing too, and suddenly everything is just completely right. “Does that make me Harley Stark, then?”

“Yes,” Tony says immediately, “yes, if you want.”

“Harley Stark has a hell of a ring to it, don’t you think?” Harley is grinning so wide Tony’s a little worried that his face is going to split in two.

“Yes, God yes,” Tony hugs him again. “Harley Stark.”


	4. never break the chain

Peter looks up from where he’s sitting on the steps when he hears the horn. To his surprise, it’s not Harley or Happy who’s come to pick him up for the weekend. Tony Stark is getting out of his (illegally stopped) car, and walking towards Peter. He’s grinning, as the kids part like the red sea before him. Peter’s mouth almost hits the floor. Tony scoops him into a big hug. He has eyes only for Peter. Which of course means that the rest of the school hasn’t stopped staring.

“So you must be, Ned?” Tony looks at Ned with a quirked eyebrow.

“Uh?” Ned nods.

“And MJ?” He turns to MJ who waves her hand in greeting.

“‘Sup, Dr Stark,” MJ jerks her head.

“Finally someone who acknowledges my four PhDs,” Tony mutters, “you kids got your stuff?”

“Yeah,” Peter says quickly, “where’s May?”

“She’s already at home,” Tony grins, “she and Pepper are assembling a huge tower of cake.”

“Oh god,” Peter groans. “Not with the hot sugar again?”

“Nope,” Tony laughs, “Harley couldn’t borrow his friend’s car, so he’s coming on the bike, which means that muggins here had to come to pick you up, though I did want to talk to your admin person thing… I wanted to get myself listed as your emergency contact while I was here.”

“Um… Doctor Stark,” MJ says, “a traffic warden is ticketing your car.”

“Oh, what the frick?” Tony sighs as he turns around to watch the guy ticket his (new) Volvo.

“Did you just say ‘what the frick?’” Peter laughs, “I can’t wait till-“

“If you tell Harley I said that I will personally revoke your access to the lab for a month,” Tony growls.

“Oh okay, that’s fair.” Peter nods, smiling. “Hey I’m really glad that Harley’s getting adopted, I think that’s so nice.”

“Right,” Tony grins, “and hey, kid, you know… if anything ever happens and you need us, we’re here for you too. Not that anything would because I reckon May could take down the Hulk but if it does. We’d be there. For you.”

“Thanks, Tony” Peter doesn’t really know what to say, so he just shifts his feet and points back into the school. Tony gives him a look, which is soft and understanding before he pats Peter on the shoulder and walks into the school building. “Uh, the reception is still open if you wanted to go do the… uh… the thing? We can wait out here.” Peter looks around at MJ and Ned, it looks like the entire school is stood there, staring at them, “Wait, why are people staring?”

“Uh, maybe because Tony Stark, literal saviour of the entire world just offered to adopt you if anything ever happened to May?” MJ shrugs. “I don’t know, something like that might make people stare?”

“Oh.” Peter jerks his head and sits down on the steps. “Yeah he really did that, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” MJ looks at him.

“Hell yeah, he did!” Ned sits down and pats Peter on the shoulder.

***

Harley’s having his ‘yay you’re a Stark now’ party today, it’s a Saturday, and most of the Avengers are going to be there. Seeing as how in the last few months Harley’s met all of them and has made an impression on them. At least, Peter is sure that Harley’s made an impression on them, Harley made an impression on him. Peter smiles as he thinks about his brother, it’s five am, and he’s actually managed a decent amount of sleep, but he has a habit of waking up starving during the night. The big box of Froot Loops that are hidden from Morgan on the top of the kitchen cabinets is calling out to him. He’s reaching for the box when something doesn’t feel right. There’s something different about the kitchen. Something that wasn’t there when they all went upstairs to bed. His arm hairs stand up on end. Peter freezes, poised to turn around and confront whatever is in the kitchen. He just hopes he’s not about to get kidnapped.

“Hey,” Clint Barton is sitting at the breakfast bar, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“…uh… hey?” Peter looks at him. “Don’t you have your own house?”

“Yeup,” Clint nods and continues to eat his sandwich.

“…okay…” Peter shakes his head, maybe he didn’t get enough sleep. “Why are you in Mr Stark’s house?”

“I needed a sandwich, and we were out of peanut butter back at my place,” Clint shrugs, he only has a quarter of the sandwich left. His bow and arrows are sitting next to him on the counter, along with a machete and a sword.

“Um… Mr Stark doesn’t like weapons on the kitchen counters,” Peter points to Clint’s stuff.

“Right,” Clint nods, and sweeps the things off the surface, they clatter to the floor with varying degrees of volume. Peter cringes at the noise. “What’re you doing up, Parker?”

“I wanted Froot Loops?” Peter points to the box.

Clint doesn’t really respond, he just grunts and goes to the cabinet where the Froot Loops are kept; he looks up and spots the box. Before he raises an eyebrow and turns back to Peter.

“Why are they kept higher than Stark can reach?” Clint asks, reaching up and grabbing the cereal, handing it to Peter as he turns to the coffee machine. “Aw, yes, coffee. I love Stark,” Clint grins, shaking the beans, “he always gets the good stuff.” Peter is still watching Clint, he hasn’t moved from the spot where he froze. “What’s the matter, Parker? Can’t friends break into each other’s houses for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and coffee?”

“Uh?” Peter just jerks his head and pours his Froot Loops. “I guess Mr Stark won’t mind.”

“Nah he won’t… I used to steal stuff from his floor in the tower all the time,” Clint smiles. “I was on a mission.” Clint sighs, “I was on a mission and I only just got back, didn’t want to wake up everyone at home, so I came here.”

“Huh,” Peter sits next to Clint with his Froot Loops.

“So,” Clint grins, “are you like his kid now or what? I know the other one is, but are you?”

“I-“Peter gestures, “I guess?”

“Good for you,” Clint grunts, draining the last of his coffee, “well, I’m gonna go crash on the couch.” Which, he does. Literally. He falls face first on the couch. And, just doesn’t move. Peter hears him snoring a couple of minutes later.

“Well,” he whispers, as the sun slowly begins to rise, and the day starts. Peter smiles a little, as the pink, orange streaks of sky brighten and the birds in the trees outside start to chirp. He goes back to bed, he has at least a couple of hours until Tony comes around to wake him up.

***

The whole team is in the house and scattered around the garden. Tony is smiling along with T’Challa and Shuri, talking about something Peter’s not sure about. Harley is playing with Morgan, pushing her on the swing as he talks to Bucky and Sam. Peter glances around the garden, watching Clint tease Steve about his hair; it’s grown out a bit like it had done when he’d been in exile. He’s tan too, Peter thinks he looks much more chill. Peter’s sitting on the porch swing, just watching everyone looking like they’re having a good time. Aunt May is talking to Natasha and Captain Carol which is mildly terrifying, and they’re all laughing which makes it worse somehow. He feels like he’s both too involved and not involved enough. Like he’s watching something from behind a glass screen, but it’s still too loud and too bright. He hates it, cause he never used to be like this, but since the big battle he’s been jumpy, and when things are too much his brain feels like a computer using all its CPU.

“Are you okay, Peter?” Pepper comes to sit next to him.

“I’m fine,” he shifts, for all the time he’s spent in the Stark’s house, he’s not really spent much time with Pepper alone.

“Mmm,” Pepper nods, “that’s what Tony says. You know, if you’re not fine, you can take a breather, go to your room for a bit. I can call you when we eat.”

“Really?” Peter looks up, he’s been wanting to run to his room for a while.

“Of course,” Pepper smiles gently, patting his shoulder. “Sometimes things are too much, and you need to step away. Harley won’t mind, I promise.”

“Okay,” Peter sighs, “I might only need ten minutes.” He feels relief flooding his brain as he moves towards the house, he shuts down a little, not entirely just enough so that his mind can cool and rest just a bit.

His room is a little like Harley’s, it’s smaller and right under the eaves of the house, so it’s got a sloping roof and dormer window. It has a desk with a proper light and some welding equipment scattered across it. And Tony filled the bookshelves with old engineering textbooks of his, which Peter likes to read when he’s there. It’s a little crowded because Ned’s sleeping there with him this weekend, but Peter doesn’t mind too much. There’s a little alcove, where the shape of the house changed just a little bit. Peter crawls in there, where it’s small and warm, and just a bit dark. He knows it’s probably his spider thing that makes him like the alcove, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to like the space. He has a picture of him and May on the wall, next to one with him Morgan and Harley. There’s also one with Mister Stark there too, and one with all of them together which was taken by Happy. Past Peter also stored a Three Musketeer’s bar there. Which makes him happy.

“Kid?” Tony knocks on his door. “Can I come in?”

“Uh,” Peter swallows the mouthful of nougat, “sure.”

“Thanks,” Tony steps into the room and sees Peter in the alcove. “Pepper told me you wanted to come up here for a bit, I thought I’d join you if you don’t mind?”

“That’s fine,” Peter smiles as Tony sits on the floor by the alcove.

“You doing okay?” Tony asks, tilting his head slightly to the side, studying Peter.

“Sometimes in crowds, all I can think about is the battle, and the noise and my brain can’t take it. It freezes and hurts, and then I can’t breathe,” the words tumble out of Peter before he can stop them, he can’t control it. “Sorry- I-“

“It’s fine,” Tony waves his hand, “don’t worry about it, kiddo. You never have to be anywhere that makes you feel like an overloaded computer with dust clogging the fans.” He smiles softly, stretching his legs out in front of him and kicking his converse covered feet together. “I used to get like that, sometimes, after the first battle, and Afghanistan, and then this battle too. I have…” Tony pauses, his eyes looking at the ceiling for a second before he takes a breath. “Crowds, right? I get it, I really do. You wanna go to therapy?” Tony asks, craning his head around so he can look Peter in the eye. “I can talk to May?”

“Therapy?” Peter stops thinking for a second, letting his brain catch up with what’s been said.

“Yeah,” Tony shrugs, “it’s… good. You know… um… to talk? Yeah, it’s good. It could be good for you too. I know we spoke about it that night… with the stars? But if you wanna, it’s on the table for you.”

“Oh,” Peter jerks his head, shuffling a little further back in his alcove. “I guess it would be a good idea.”

“Mmm,” Tony just leans back against the wall again, “I’ll talk to May. Hey, I should probably head out there, you take all the time you need.”

“The ice cream cake,” Peter nods, “is it peppermint?”

“Nope,” Tony pops the’ t’ looking at Peter with a slight rise in his eyebrow.

“Oh, good,” Peter relaxes before standing and smiling, “Spiders hate peppermint.”

“Don’t tell Harley that,” Tony snorts.

“I’m keeping the ‘frick’ incident a secret, you can keep this one,” Peter folds his arms over his knees.

“It seems we are at an impasse,” Tony shrugs, before he slings an arm around Peter’s shoulder, hesitating for just a moment to gauge Peter’s okayness before he draws him into a full-on hug. Which is warm and soft and all kinds of soothing. Peter relaxes into the contact, letting it calm his brain; he breathes in and out slowly, letting Tony hug him. “Alright, kid. I got you. I know.” Tony’s whispering. “I got you.”

The rest of the party goes smoothly, the rest of the team are accommodated in the guest house Tony built for this very purpose. Morgan just about falls in love with Clint’s kids, they’re much closer her age, and she takes to archery like a duck to water. Which makes Tony slightly worried, because he doesn’t think he wants his daughter to turn into an archer, he’s not sure he wants his daughter anywhere near anything to do with Clinton Francis Barton. But he watches her fire an arrow into the bullseye and watches Clint scoop her up into a hug, and realises that he might not mind as much as he thought he would. Clint’s a great dad, for all his faults. The party is starting to wind down as the sun sets below the tops of the trees, casting them in a gold light that stains everything with hope, Tony lets himself relax into the porch swing. The voices of his team echo around him, these people he trusts with his life, and they all made it. All of them.

When the sun drops finally, fading, so the only light comes from the string lights, Pepper hung, the rest of the team files down the path to the guest house. Morgan, who is firmly asleep, is placed gently on Tony’s lap; she curls into him with her fist on his chest; one of her fingers stroking his beard in her sleep. He cradles her close, pressing a kiss on to the top of her head, running his fingers through her hair. When he stands, his knees creaking and his arm protesting slightly, she mumbles in her sleep and starts to fuss like she used to when she was a baby. Tony soothes her, rocking her a little.

“I know, baby,” Tony whispers, “just lemme get you into bed, sweetheart.” He lies her down on her bed, pulling her blanket over her and kissing her forehead.

***

It’s three thirty am. Tony’s awake because Thanos just stabbed him again. So he does what he does best and heads for the lab. Thinking that if he can build something then maybe he’ll get too tired to dream. Most of the team are sleeping in the guest house, but there was one room left in the main house, which Thor took because that was the room which faced the fields and the stream. He can hear Thor’s snores, and almost feels sorry for Harley. Almost. The hallway is dark, darker than it has any right to be, he reminds himself to install some LEDs up there. A bright spark of pain shoots up his foot as he kicks something cold and hard.

“Shit,” he whispers, looking down at what he thinks is Mjolnir. It’s three am so Tony does what he thinks is the logical thing and picks the hammer up. He picks the hammer up? “What?” He looks down at it in his hand.

There’s a soft cough behind him. “I knew it,” Thor whispers from the doorway of his room. Tony puts the hammer down and picks it back up again.

“Holy fucking shit,” Harley whispers from behind him, “Tony, what the fucking fuck?”

“I?” Tony looks at Mjolnir, “what the hell?”

“Stark,” Thor comes up to him, he’s lost the tired, haunted look that his face used to carry. Almost as if a weight has been taken from his shoulders. “You were willing to give up your life, everything you have, you wielded the stones, built a gauntlet and saved the universe. You did that. Of course, you are worthy. You are more than worthy.” There’s a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. “You are worthy Son of Stark.”

“Huh,” the hammer really is perfectly balanced, and he’s almost just starting to believe Thor. Tony’s never thought he was worthy of anything. Not worthy of Pepper. Not worthy of Morgan. Not worthy of Peter, or Harley. Or SI. Anything. That’s Howard Stark’s A+ parenting. But the hammer wouldn’t have let itself be picked up if he wasn’t worthy. So maybe. Maybe, Tony lets himself believe it. Just a little. Tony looks at the hammer again. He remembers when Steve picked it up, and really, he thinks, it’s only fair that he get a go. And it’s not like he’s wielding it in a battle to save the universe, but moving it from the hallway is almost as important. Knowing the kids he has in this house, someone would get hurt if he didn’t.

“Tony?” Harley walks up behind him, and with a hand on his shoulder, nudges him to Thor. Tony gives the hammer back.

“Thank you,” Thor smiles, and tucks the hammer just inside the door. “Now we have to share two things between three. That’s okay though, you two are my brothers.” Thor has a way of summing everything up. Nicely. He’s actually really smart. Tony smiles and pats the god on the shoulder. Without saying anything.

“You okay, Tony?” Harley asks him once Thor’s snoring is once again echoing in the house.

“I’m-“Tony can’t find the words, but he doesn’t need to, Harley pulls him into a tight hug and holds him there. And seriously, when did that kid get so tall? Tony could get used to being hugged though, it’s nice. He’s not sure when they all got so… touchy-feely, maybe it was after the fourth time he nearly died. But the touch is grounding. And good. He lets himself be hugged by his kid. It’s weird to think of. “I’m really glad you’re my kid,” Tony says because it feels like the right thing to say and he’s not really sure what else would come out of his mouth if he didn’t say something.


	5. don't always think before i do (cause i'm a man)

The city is a heaving mess of cars, people, trucks, trains and other various forms of traffic. Above it all stands Stark Tower, an enormous hulking skeleton of a building, empty now, possibly forever. Peter goes and sits on the landing platform, his hands shaking slightly, he’s torn by the need to higher but also the need to get into the smallest, darkest space and curl up for a few days. His helmet snaps back into the suit, and he can feel the breeze on his face. Up here, its cooler but New York in the summer is still a bitch, hot and humid all at once suffocating and liberating. Normally, Peter loves the city, but it all feels a bit much. All day he’s felt like he was running down a dark tunnel, never getting closer to the exit; like he’s some kind of video game character that moves like the air is three times thicker than it actually is. The thing that happened in the shop was just enough to push him over the edge. He’s skipping class, but he can’t bring himself to care. A noise from behind him the last thing he expects.

“Hey,” Harley says, sitting down next to him, so that their legs dangle off the edge of the landing platform together, “I don’t have crazy spider powers, so you’re going to have to catch me if I fall, kay?”

“Always,” Peter smiles, but he takes everything, or mostly everything, Harley says to him.

“Tony told me you were up here,” Harley nudges their shoulders together, “and I’ve been breaking in since two years ago, but he knew that too.” He sighs, and stares out at the city for a moment, before he turns to Peter, “what happened?”

“The sales assistant,” Peter makes a vague gesture, he wants to curl up into a ball and never ever see the light of day again. If Harley weren’t with him, he’d have taken a backflip off the side of the building trying to get the adrenaline coursing through his veins to make him forget, “she said ‘have a nice day, Miss,’ I guess she wasn’t looking at me properly or, maybe today is just a no passing day, but I thought I was done with that.”

“Huh,” Harley sighs, a soft noise coming out of his mouth, “what can I do?” Peter’s not sure, he feels like his skin is made of TV static, like he’s been wired all wrong, which he supposes he has, “hey,” Harley places a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. “Hey look at me,” he’s being far more gentle than he’s ever been before. Peter notices the tears that are starting to roll down his face, steady really embarrassing. “The assistant probably didn’t even look up, but that doesn’t matter, what other people think doesn’t matter. And for the record, you’re looking handsome as hell today, the windswept look, bro,” Harley says, Peter sniffs and giggles, “It’s Friday, and we’re clearly not going back to class, so how about I let you drive the bike down to Tony’s, and we shoot May a text telling her that we’ve gone ahead?”

“Yeah,” Peter nods, he’s tired and achy from swinging all the way from Queens to Manhattan, he sniffles just a little bit.

“Aw, shit, Pete,” Harley says, before the hand on his shoulder pulls him into a tight hug, Peter is shorter than Harley by a good few inches, so he’s effectively burrowed into his brother’s chest. Harley rests his head on top of Peter’s, and it might just be the best hug Peter’s ever had, apart from Tony’s and May’s. Peter just kind of… melts. “It’s alright dude,” Harley pats his shoulder.

“Wait, are you actually letting me drive the bike?” Peter looks up at Harley when they break apart.

“Yeah, once we get out the city,” Harley shrugs, “don’t see why not, you’ve already ridden around Tony’s land and not died.”

It doesn’t take them long to get to where Harley keeps the bike stored. Neither of them pack anything really to go to Tony’s, Harley has pretty much moved in, and Peter has more than enough stored there. They even have their computers hooked up to a shared network, so there’s no moving around tech. The city fades, blurring into the heat lined distance behind them. If they were riding without helmets (which would be stupid, they always have helmets, stay safe kids), the wind would have been whipping their hair and turning their cheeks pink. Peter is almost vibrating with excitement when Harley pulls over on a back road. There’s a decent hard shoulder though, so they’re not in danger.

“Come on,” he says, standing, “you got about thirty minutes or so before we get to Tony’s so enjoy them.” The sidecar isn’t hooked up, Peter had been sitting on the back of the bike, which isn’t the most comfortable of places to ride for an hour. “Don’t kill us, Petey,” Harley taps his helmet as Peter makes himself comfortable. Harley is a lot bigger than him in the height department, and the bike is customised for him, so Peter’s having just a little trouble. “You comfortable there?” Harley asks. The comms in their helmets are the same as the Avengers use in the field and could keep them connected even through the worst noise and signal patches.

“Yeah,” Peter wriggles a bit before he finds a good position, Harley’s behind him, holding on to the grips on the side of the wheel casing. One tap to his shoulder from Harley is all it takes before Peter lets the bike go. It’s almost as exhilarating as plummeting off a twenty storey building. The bike feels like a wild animal growling, Peter hangs on and lets the wind whistle through his helmet.

“God,” Harley laughs behind him, “I’ve created a damn monster.” But he’s laughing louder than Peter is. The trees and hedgerows whipping past them too fast to make the individual lumps of green. They’re both having so much fun, Peter’s spider reflexes keeping them safer than what should be possible.

They pull into Tony’s twenty minutes later. He’s standing on the front porch, a vaguely amused smile on his face.

“Thanks, FRIDAY,” he says. “Harley, Pete, nice to see ditching school is still a tradition.” Though he’s trying to be stern, a smile is working its way on to his face. “Come on, both of you, I can give you a lesson in the lab to make up for the school you’ve missed this afternoon.”

“Cool,” Harley grins, swinging his leg off the bike and clipping his helmet to the handlebar. “Oh,” he looks at Tony’s face, “wait,” he frowns, a smile just barely visible under it, “damn, dad, can’t believe you caught us, damn.” Sarcasm is etched into the words, and it takes them all five seconds more to burst out laughing.

“I wasn’t kidding,” Tony shoos them into the lab, “we’re going to be making new compounds, so get yourselves ready and start thinking of some cool shit.” The learning area of the lab is covered in notes and diagrams pinned up all over the walls. There are three large benches, in a row side by side, all strewn with bits of equipment and half-finished projects. A particle collider and a fully working model of the Mars Rover are on the sideboard, they are covered in post-it notes. The lights are brighter in this area than in the rest of the lab, designed to wake the boys up when they’re there. Separating this area and the rest of the lab is a moveable partition, with folds also covered in diagrams and post-its.

“So,” Tony stands at the front and rubs his hands together, “we’ll do an hour or so of playing around with compounds, but I just got my PhD in physical biochemistry so I was thinking we could mess around with these schematics for Barnes’ arm that Shuri sent me this morning. She says hi, by the way.” He says flicking the hologram, making it spin. “I want you guys to come to me with a completed model and drawing of the compound, as well as a plan to actually make the thing, you got forty minutes, the one that can make the loudest bang wins three hours of bike modification time with me.” Tony knows that it’s likely he’ll spend all weekend on their bikes anyway, but he likes to give them something to work towards. Peter and Harley grin at each other before they get to work, Tony turns away and goes into the mechanical engineering part of the lab.

“FRIDAY,” Tony says, “can you explode this for me, please,” he asks, watching as the arm blows itself apart into its separate components. “Hey, Harley?” Tony pauses the clock, “what would happen if I put this here?” He gestures to a random wire, one that should definitely not go where he’s pointing.

“The arm would blow up, probably causing serious nerve damage to whoever was wearing it.” Harley looks up from his fume cupboard, the answer takes him about twenty seconds to guess. “I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna wear it.”

“Good call, kiddo,” Tony nods, “Pete, what would happen if I were to reverse this here?” He points to one of the many dials that make up the neurones in the arm.

“Can you make that bigger?” Peter asks once the hologram is bigger, Peter can see precisely what would happen. “It would cause a malfunction in the sensory input, kind of like when people confuse hot and cold, but like all the time.”

“Precisely,” Tony grins, he’s taught them well. They did help him build his own arm, after all, but Bucky’s is Wakandan and different. He looks at it, wondering if he can maybe make it even lighter than it is if he can synthesise the weight right. Barnes has been complaining of that for a few days, since he started going on top-secret missions with Sam (that Tony knows all about because he’s Tony Stark). He’s just contemplating whether or not using the same alloy he uses in the suit would work for the arm when there is a massive explosion. Tony turns around to see Peter in the corner, on the ceiling, and Harley picking bits of glass out his hair. Peter scrabbles down from the ceiling going over to his own fume cupboard, smirking a little as Harley wipes some sort of muck from his safety goggles.

“And that is why we use a fume cupboard,” Tony smiles and walks over to the cupboard. “What went wrong?” He points at the mess.

“I used too much of this,” Harley holds up a test tube, “and not enough stabiliser.”

“Yeah you did,” Tony nods, “try upping the stabiliser by three per cent.”

“Huh,” Harley raises an eyebrow, “that’d work. Thanks, Dad.”

“No problem,” he claps Harley on the shoulder and watches him for a second, feeling warm and fuzzy and entirely too Dad like for his own good. “Times nearly up though, so make sure you’ve got something for me.”

***

Harley wins, just, his compound is super sensitive to anything though, so Tony gives Peter some bonus points for making a compound that doesn’t have to be suspended in a vacuum thing. Tony pars the little jar and puts it on the shelf. The boys are in the garage, working on their bikes, it’s become an after-dinner tradition for them, and they clock in some serious hours to it. Tony doesn’t mind, it gives him a chance to work on the suits, he’s building one for Harley, and he’s always making little changes and things to Peter’s. Maybe he’ll take Harley out tomorrow, give him his first taste of a suit, he hums as he pulls Peter’s suit out of its casing. He’s just looking at some wiring in the chest cavity when he notices it. A bit of material that he certainly didn’t build in there, he tugs it before he thinks better of it.

“FRIDAY,” he says, tucking the screwdriver behind his ear, “what’s this?”

“It would appear to be a chest binder, Boss,” FRIDAY answers him, and Tony swears he didn’t build this AI to be as emotional as JARVIS, but maybe she’s learning cause there’s a hint of protective threat behind her words. As if Tony would ever harm Peter for being trans.

“Oh Petey,” Tony sighs, before he shrugs, “I can talk to him later, give me an update on that soldering.”

It’s two hours before Tony raises his head again, nearly eleven pm. He walks out of the lab to find the boys in the kitchen, finishing off the remains of their pop-tart supply. Tony smiles before he places a hand on Peter’s shoulder, tapping him and nodding outside. The air is hot and heavy, even for the dead of summer and there’s very little sound out apart from the occasional lap of water from the river. The porch steps creak as he sits down, Peter beside him.

“I was working on your suit today,” he says, watching Peter as the kid stiffens, he feels a pang of worry, so he lightens the mood, “great modifications, by the way, I loved the new web fluid, super smart. You got an A+ there from me, kiddo,” he says, and Peter relaxes just a little, so he takes a deep breath and tries for casual. “The binder though, it looks a little tight there, Pete, and I’m pretty sure it’s not safe to bind during exercise.”

“I… I what?” Peter splutters, looking at him.

“I don’t care,” Tony shakes his head, “I love you all the same, no matter what, just please be safe. I read up on binding and it… Petey, I can’t have you doing yourself damage. We can banish Harley to the garage tomorrow and work on it together. We’ll build it right.” Tony draws Peter into a hug, wrapping his arms around the kid and placing a gentle kiss into his hair. “I love you, and I support you however you need me, I’m here for you.”

“Tony-“ Peter chokes before he breaks off and laughs as Tony puts him into a headlock.

“C’ mon we should at least be pretending to be responsible,” Tony smiles and stands, brushing his hands on his jeans.

“Hey,” Peter says, “did you know that sometimes Clint is just here?”

“Yeah,” Tony shrugs, “he’s just like that sometimes.”

“Okay well, I saw him in the kitchen at like four am once,” Peter waves his hand, tilting his head in confusion.

“Yep, he’s here right now, actually.” Tony peers into the kitchen, “huh. That’s where the peanut butter keeps going. I was wondering.” He turns to Peter, “he doesn’t like waking Laura and the kids when he gets home late from missions. And we have a place he can store the quinjet here, so I said he could always just use our place to crash and then get home to his in the morning. Wait… that gives me an idea.”

“Oh no,” Peter groans, watching as Tony practically runs into the kitchen, startling Clint as he dives past him. “Sorry!” Peter says. The lab is empty, Harley’s probably nailing things to the ceiling in his room, it is like twelve am.

“What the fuck?” Clint mutters before he’s following them too.

“I have an idea,” Tony turns around, “oh, hi, Barton.”

“Hey,” Clint nods, “you have an idea?” He sits on a bench and swings his legs back and forth.

“Yeah,” Tony nods, “hey FRIDAY bring up ‘project cul-de-sac’.”

“On it, Boss,” FRIDAY says, and the room lights up. It takes a few seconds for Peter to work out that he’s staring at the compound, but the empty land around it has roads and tiny houses on it, almost like a little village. The houses towards the edge of the compound are more spread out, a little bigger, Peter realises.

“Tony,” Clint says, “did you design a fucking town?”

“Um.” Tony scratches at the back of his head, “I was bored?”

“Jesus,” Clint breathes, sucking air through his teeth, “hey does this say ‘Barton Farm’?”

“Yeah,” Tony nods, “I was thinking that going back and forth all the time sucked ass, and took away time I could spend with my kids, so I moved this cabin on to the grounds, then I built one for the guardians because in my original plans I was just going to rebuild the old compound which didn’t have the space. Then I realised you have a family too so I’d need to build you a house, because I bet Laura wouldn’t want to move into the main compound site but then I thought instead of building you a new house, we could just move your old one on to the compound, cause well, house hunting sucks and you have a pretty nice thing going… and then I realised that why not make the compound into a place where all of us could live? Like the Avengers are basically a hot-bed for PTSD right, and it’s easier when we’re together. So, this way we’re together but with space- what?” Tony is suddenly being drawn into a hug. In all the years they’d known each other, Clint had barely touched him. Tony is usually a pretty hands-on person, but he’s never wanted to cross any line Barton has drawn up. So the hug is a surprise, but it’s not entirely unwelcome. “Wow, Barton, if I knew you liked me this much, maybe I wouldn’t have spent all that time making you new arrows.”

“You’re really something else, Tony,” Clint pats him on the back, “even after everything, you still do this? Man, I went with the wrong team.”

“Damn straight,” Tony nods, smiling. “I’ll get some people on it. The lot’s just sitting there, we cleared the rubble and salvaged all the structure that could be saved in the first month after the battle. The old compound has been rebuilt, but it’s empty what with the team doing… whatever it is they’ve been doing.” There’s a pause in which Clint wanders off to look at the Iron Man suits. “I built you and May a little place too,” Tony looks at Peter, pointing to a small house, which sits about five hundred meters from the Stark cabin. “Midtown isn’t too far by quinjet and spider-man suit.”

“Thanks,” Peter looks at the town, “but what are you going to do with Stark Tower?”

“I had another plan, FRIDAY, ‘Project Einstein’ please,” Tony grins, watching as a hologram of Stark Tower springs into view. “The place is huge, and hasn’t functioned as SI HQ for years, so it’s just sitting there empty. Well, since you dusted people all came back, there’re loads of kids out of school from all over the world, and we have the space, I have the money. So I’m making it into a boarding and day school. Non-fee-paying, everything is covered by SI funds and uh… me.”

“This is,” Peter stares at the plans, “this is a lot.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve spent the last year idle, no Iron Man, no Avengers stuff… I had to do something besides fix your damn bikes and suits.” Tony waves his hand in the air.

“Suits?” Peter jerks his head around to look at Tony, “as in more than one?”

“Don’t tell your brother,” Tony grins, “his birthday’s coming up, and I wanted to surprise him,” he looks around, “FRIDAY show me ‘Project Edison’.” The suit rolls out of the case it has been in, it looks a lot like Tony’s, though it’s smaller and clearly built for Harley, it’s black and chrome mostly, with cherry red accents and joints. The odd bits of red give it a streamlined but also vintage look, Harley is going to love it. It looks like it has slightly less dangerous weaponry than the Iron Man suits, though Peter can’t tell because nano-tech. “What do you think?”

“It’s awesome,” Peter walks forward, “it doesn’t look like it’s got the same kind of weapons as yours.”

“That’s cause it doesn’t,” Tony nods, “I don’t want him going around with the dangerous stuff I have on my suits. So I thought he can mostly run rescue, it’s got enough to get him out of any sticky situations, and he can have more as he trains.”

“He’s going to go crazy,” Peter laughs, watching as the suit lights up and shrinks down into the watch that houses it. “Nice watch too.”

“Yeah,” Tony nods, picking it up, throwing it into the air and catching it. “It’s all hooked up to both the house and his dorm, I loaded a shit ton of stuff on to it, when the compound is built, I’ll hook it up to that virtual environment. Means he can access the network wherever he is.”

“Huh,” Peter spins the suit around once it’s back to full size again, the panels under the main flaps are cherry red along with some more of the joints and accents. “No shoulder rockets?”

“Nope,” Tony shows him, “it has lights here instead, they’re super-powered if he wants them to be, it would be enough to stun any opponent. Then he has the usual flight repulsers that also work as weapons, but that’s it. I’m going to train him with Stark Tower then we’ll see how we go.”

“Makes sense,” Peter nods, “has it got flares?”

“Obviously,” Tony shows Peter a flap on the inside forearm, “pull that and flares activate.”

“Right,” Peter tugs it experimentally, “and can you activate a specific part of the suit, like if you only needed a glove?”

“Sure,” Tony closes the suit down to a glove. “works just like my hand does!” He wiggles the fingers of his metal arm while the glove covers his other hand.

“Nice,” Peter reaches out and takes the glove off, Tony, “do you think he’d mind?”

“Nah, I needed someone to try it out on,” Tony watches as the suit melts over Peter’s body, “Oh, I have really outdone myself this time. Hey! Barton stop trying to find your birthday present and check this out.”

“What is that- oh shit-“ Clint looks at Peter in the suit, it fits his shape perfectly, “that’s fucking awesome.”

“Right!?” Tony laughs, then he gives Peter a hard look, “don’t you dare try and fly Petey, there’s some stuff in here you do not want to break. Just show me how well the lights work. Facing away from us please.” Peter nods and turns the lights on, they’re bright and would totally work to stun an opponent long enough for Harley to get away. “Nice, how’s his AI?” Tony asks because this particular AI was built at four am, while he was surviving on caffeine and some leftover pistachios.

“I like him,” Peter grins as the helmet retracts, “Harley will too.”

“Great,” Tony sighs, sitting down and running a hand through his hair. “Okay, well I gotta work on this some more so,” he flicks a button on the inside of wristwatch, and the suit shrinks off Peter and back onto the stand. “Go on. To bed with both of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Leave a comment or kudos? Maybe? Your choice!
> 
> Find me on tumblr at: @trans-hawkguy


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